To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compelling product and a meaningful platform. In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creative minds are doing differently to win customers in today’s crowded marketplace.

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Tribes are groups of people aligned around an idea, connected to a leader and to each other. Tribes make our world work, and always have. The new opportunity is that it's easier than ever to find, organize, and lead a tribe. The Web has enabled an explosion of all kinds of tribes - and created shortage of people to lead them. This is the growth industry of our time. Tribes will help you understand exactly what's at stake, and why YOU can and should lead a tribe of your own.

Ask: The Counterintuitive Online Formula to Discover Exactly What Your Customers Want to Buy...Create a Mass of Raving Fans...and Take Any Business to the Next Level

The "mind-reading" system that is revolutionizing online business. Do you know how to find out what people really want to buy? (Not what you think they want, not what they say they want, but what they really want?) The secret is asking the right questions - and the right questions are not what you might expect. Ask is based on the compelling premise that you should never have to guess what your prospects and customers are thinking.

Leap First: Creating Work That Matters

Recorded in an intimate gathering of aspiring entrepreneurs, writers, and leaders, Leap First teaches us 49 essential principles, practices, and life lessons that have helped Seth the most in his own work and life. More than an audiobook or keynote speech, each track here presents a carefully chosen catalyst intended to trigger our own passion and insight with each listening.

Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck

New York Times best-selling author Jon Acuff has drawn millions of online fans who love his refreshing mix of humor, honesty, and wisdom about the world of work. Now he offers his most important audiobook yet, a guide to making big career changes - by choice or necessity - and escaping the horrible feeling of being trapped in the wrong job.

Podcastnomics: The Book of Podcasting... To Make You Millions

Podcastnomics lays out, step-by-step, not only how to set up podcasts, but how to properly produce, market, and make money off them. Clean and concise, Podcastnomics needs no asterisks for outdated gear and confusing workflows. Already being touted as one of the greatest primers on podcasting ever made, author Naresh Vissa walks listeners through the podcasting process in plain English and navigates the digital media and marketing landscape.

You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)

In You Are a Writer, Jeff Goins shares his own story of self-doubt and what it took for him to become a professional writer. He gives you practical steps to improve your writing, get published in magazines, and build a platform that puts you in charge. This audiobook is about what it takes to be a writer in the 21st Century. You will learn the importance of passion and discipline and how to show up every day to do the work.

Jennifer S. Leblanc says:"Author is someone I'd like to have a beer with"

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy - instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us. Essentialism is not one more thing - it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.

The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster: Why Now Is the Time to #jointheride

The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster will prepare you for the wild ride of entrepreneurship. It will warn you (of forthcoming fears, doubts, and the self-defeating conditioning of your upbringing and past), inoculate you (from the naysayers, dream-stealers, and pains of rejection and failure), and guide you (as you build those under-developed skills of independence, self-motivation, and self-accountability) safely past the landmines that blow up and cause the failure of 66 percent of all new businesses.

Warrior Goddess Training: Become the Woman You Are Meant to Be

It's no secret that women today are juggling a lot. We now make up more than half the workforce in the United States and are busier than ever with partners, children, family and friends, often putting the needs of others ahead of our own. And if we feel overwhelmed by it all or fall short of perfection, many of us have learned to be our own worst critic rather than our own best friend. In Warrior Goddess Training, best-selling author HeatherAsh Amara provides the antidote to the flawed idea that you are not enough.

Write. Publish. Repeat.: The No-Luck Guide to Self-Publishing Success

In 2013, Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt published 1.5 million words and made their full-time livings as indie authors. In Write. Publish. Repeat., they tell you how exactly how they did it: how they created over 15 independent franchises across 50+ published works, how they turned their art into a logical, sustainable business, and how any independent author can do the same to build a sustainable, profitable career with their writing.

Amazon Customer says:"The One Book All Self Published Authors Must Read!"

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

What do Starbucks and JetBlue and KrispyKreme and Apple and DutchBoy and Kensington and Zespri and Hard Candy have that you don't? How do they continue to confound critics and achieve spectacular growth, leaving behind former tried-and true brands to gasp their last? Face it, the checklist of tired P's marketers have used for decades to get their product noticed - Pricing, Promotion, Publicity, to name a few - aren't working anymore.

Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job

What if you could blow up your dream without blowing up your life? What if you could go for broke without going broke? What if you could start today? What if you already have everything you need to begin? From figuring out what your dream is to quitting in a way that exponentially increases your chance of success, Quitter is full of inspiring stories and actionable advice.

Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less

How do you cut through the noise, commotion, and bad information that is right now cluttering up your customers' digital space? Epic Content Marketing. One of the world's leading experts on content marketing, Joe Pulizzi explains how to draw prospects and customers in by creating information and content they actually want to engage with. No longer can we interrupt our customers with mediocre content (and sales messages) our customers don't care about. Epic Content Marketing takes you step by step through the process of developing stories that inform and entertain and compel customers to act - without actually telling them to.

The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry

The lifeblood of your business is repeat customers. But customers can be fickle, markets shift, and competitors are ruthless. So how do you ensure a steady flow of repeat business? The secret--no matter what industry you're in--is finding and keeping automatic customers. These days virtually anything you need can be purchased through a subscription, with more convenience than ever before.

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

Do you have a hobby you wish you could indulge in all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take that passion and make a living doing what you love. In Crush It! Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses.

Helpful Reviewer says:"It was an okay book, but I preferred "The E-Myth""

Your First 1000 Copies: The Step-by-Step Guide to Marketing Your Book

Imagine if you had a direct connection with thousands of readers who loved reading your books. And imagine if those readers eagerly awaited the launch of your next book. In Your First 1000 Copies, seasoned book marketing expert Tim Grahl walks you through how successful authors are using the online marketing tools to build their platform, connect with readers and sell more books.

The Millionaire Messenger: Make a Difference and a Fortune Sharing Your Advice

In The Millionaire Messenger, Brendon Burchard pulls back the curtains on the once-secretive "expert industry" and shows how to become an influential and highly paid advice expert through websites, books, speeches, seminars, coaching, consulting, and online programs. Blessed to receive life's golden ticket - a second chance - after surviving a dramatic car accident, Burchard has dedicated his life to helping others find their voice, live more fully, and follow their dreams. By following his 10-step program, average, ordinary people can learn to become experts in anything they choose.

Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, and Do Work That Matters

There are only two paths in life: average and awesome. The average path is easy because all you have to do is nothing. The awesome path is more challenging, because things like fear only bother you when you do work that matters. The good news is Start gives listeners practical, actionable insights to be more awesome, more often.

Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer. If you have a web site, you are a publisher. If you are on social media, you are in marketing. And that means that we are all relying on our words to carry our marketing messages. We are all writers.

6 Months to 6 Figures

Peter Voogd, who has been labeled the leading authority for Gen Y leadership, reveals the exact strategies he's used to go from dead broke to over six figures within six months. Peter has trained over 4,000 entrepreneurs, and built an eight-million-dollar sales organization by age 27. If you're one of the select few who are serious about success, this book will change the game for you, regardless of what industry you're in.

Book Yourself Solid, 2nd Edition: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling

According to the Small Business Administration, 90% of service businesses will fail within the first five years. They fail not because they don't offer great services and products, but because the owners are extremely uncomfortable with traditional marketing and sales. The result is a frustrated, isolated, and overwhelmed business owner who does not know there is an entirely different, highly successful approach to marketing and sales available—and it's laid out in Book Yourself Solid.

The Compound Effect: Jumpstart Your Income, Your Life, Your Success

Darren Hardy, publisher and editorial director of Success magazine, presents The Compound Effect, a distillation of the fundamental principles that have guided the most phenomenal achievements in business, relationships, and beyond.

Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is About Help Not Hype

Jay Baer's Youtility offers a new approach that cuts through the clutter: marketing that is truly, inherently useful. If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life. Drawing from real examples of companies who are practicing Youtility as well as his experience helping more than 700 brands improve their marketing strategy, Baer provides a groundbreaking plan for using information and helpfulness to transform the relationship between companies and customers.

Podcast Launch: A Step by Step Podcasting Guide

Have you ever considered creating your very own podcast? Podcast Launch will take you through the entire process, from step one to step done. These tutorials will make your podcast experience enjoyable and stress-free. Podcast Launch begins with identifying your podcast, followed by the equipment needed, recording and editing, intros and outros, tagging your MP3, uploading to a media host, embedding your MP3 onto your website, submitting your podcast to iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and Blackberry, launching your podcast the right way, and monetizing.

Publisher's Summary

In Platform, Michael Hyatt, one of the top business bloggers in the world, provides down-to-earth guidance for building and expanding a powerful platform.

To be successful in the market today, you must possess two strategic assets: a compelling product and a meaningful platform. In this step-by-step guide, Michael Hyatt, former CEO and current Chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, takes readers behind the scenes, into the new world of social media success. He shows you what best-selling authors, public speakers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and other creative minds are doing differently to win customers in today’s crowded marketplace.

Hyatt speaks from experience. He writes one of the top 800 blogs in the world and has more than 100,000 followers on Twitter. His large and growing platform serves as the foundation for his successful writing, speaking, and consulting practice.

In Platform, Hyatt will teach readers not only how to extend their influence, but also how to monetize it and build a sustainable career. The key is to build a platform. It has never been easier, less expensive, or more possible than right now.

The book includes:

Proven strategies,

Easy-to-replicate formulas, and

Practical tips.

Social media technologies have changed everything. Now, for the first time in history, non-celebrities can get noticed - and win big! - in an increasingly noisy world.

I'd recommend PLATFORM, but not in audiobook form. So much of the content would be better as reference. (ex. If I want to read about one specific related to maintaining a blog, I'd look it up in the glossary.) As an audiobook, it's kind of a mess. Hyatt's a more than credible source and a quality author, but he should have hired someone else to do the voice-over. He sounds like a nice guy, but his voice gets irritating after a while and makes the production feel cheap. The info contained in the book is far from cheap, so it's unfortunate. This is the case of a great writer/director also needing to act in his own movie, and the movie suffering for it...so to speak.

How could the performance have been better?

Different Voice-Over Talent, content chapters broken up by specific names for sections

Who do you think would benefit most from listening to Platform?

Anyone looking to establish a web presence and expand their brand.

Any additional comments?

Re-record this with Dylan Baker's voice (see: "Steve Jobs" audiobook) and break up the content even more with specific names for sections, include a .pdf glossary, and this would be excellent. Otherwise, it's a mostly-lazy audio translation of an otherwise good book.

Michael Hyatt's "Platform", offers a significant amount of practical advice and step-by-step processes. Unlike many of his peers, there is very little "fluff" in this book and its contents could not be so easily summarized in a pamphlet.

I work as a marketing director for a company as well as developing my own side businesses of graphic design and photography. I expected useful information for my personal projects but was surprised by how much of the information was relevant to my full time job as well.

If the thought of building your brand via web-based means makes you weak in the knees; i highly recommend this book.

Yes, there's a lot of goo information Hyatt points out that is very useful in building your presence in the on-line world. Some of it is basic, but most of us don't do it, and some of it is knew and we should start doing it.

What did you like best about this story?

Hyatt is good at making things practical and putting things into a useful context

Any additional comments?

There are too many on-line gurus around these days, and Hyatt's book helps those who actually know what they're doing stand out from the charlatans.

This audiobook is fantastic. Mr Hyatt generates tons of great ideas for you to get your name out there as well as the pros and cons of each. He shares from his successes and failures. He really got my mind going.

I loved it so much, I just downloaded the book as well so I can refer to it as I build my "platform". Tons of ideas. You will not be disappointed.

I would certainly recommend this audiobook to anyone looking to build their personal brand. Some great how-to steps in here.

What did you like best about this story?

I liked having a lot of detailed steps to building a platform.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

I wasn't thrilled about the narration - the author doing it himself. I understand why he did, though. In a book all about building your own brand and putting yourself out in the world, he kind of had to narrate it himself or risk inauthenticity. (is that a word?)

As a High Performance Coach, I'm always on the lookout for great books to recommend to clients. This book is certainly one of them. It provides excellent tips on making best use of social media to propel your business. Buy it!

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